Iron Fists

An illustrated history of propaganda art and design from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the USSR, and Communist China.

Steven Heller

Editions:

Price:
USD$45.00

Overview

This provocative survey reveals how four of the most destructive dictatorships of the 20th century – Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Russia and Communist China – used graphic design to sell their messages

Explores each regime’s distinctive strategies for seducing public opinion and infiltrating people’s lives, in media ranging from logos, flags, typefaces and posters to children’s books and figurines

The perceptive text analyses how these four regimes established the most effective modes of visual propaganda, which were later adopted and adapted by many other dictatorships

Specifications

Paperback

English

290 x 250 mm, 11 3/8 x 9 7/8 in

224 pp

400 colour illustrations, 50 black and white illustrations

ISBN-13: 9780714861098

ISBN-10: 071486109X

About the book

Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State is the first illustrated survey of the propaganda art, graphics, and artefacts created by the totalitarian governments of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the USSR, and Communist China. The iconography produced by these regimes is universally recognized as their “brands”: the swastika and aggressive typography of Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s streamlined Futurist posters and Black Shirt uniforms, the stolid Social Realism of Stalin’s USSR, and Mao’s Little Red Book and ceramic figurines from the Cultural Revolution.

Written by the eminent designer and design historian Steven Heller, who has long collected two- and three-dimensional examples from this period, Iron Fists focuses on graphic materials such as typefaces, logos, posters, advertisements, children’s books, flags, and medals. As Heller explains, Mussolini fancied himself an art director and the Nazis had a sophisticated graphic program, featuring Hitler as "logo," that is remarkably similar to modern corporate identity systems. Heller also explores the meaning of color systems (each dictatorship had a distinctive palette), the development of regime-specific typefaces, and even the slogans used to both rally and terrorize the populace. Delving into the history of once-innocent antecedents in heraldry, color symbolism, and sacred and secular symbols, he demonstrates how these elements were put to disturbingly effective use in selling the totalitarian message.

About the author(s)

Steven Heller is a Senior Art Director at the New York Times and co-chair of the MFA/Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. A respected authority in the design world, he has written and coauthored numerous publications, include Merz to Emigré and Beyond, also published by Phaidon.